Beautiful libraries from around the world

Designed by the genius mexican design stuido Anagrama, this mini-library hollowed out in a Monterrey bookshop features stairs cut through the middle of the dome, while padded seats on either side afford comfortable reading spots. It’s visually striking and a distinctively clever use of space.

Norway’s Vennesla library has more in common with a spaceship than a library. A series of 27 arching ribs hug the ceiling, creating not only a skeleton for the building but padded benches to relax and recline on while reading.

a monumental

interior. The library's features include an atrium that, over an alternating black and white slab marble floor, soars 61 feet high to a latticed skylight of frosted heavy glass surrounded by five tiers of ornamental black

balconies and gold-scalloped columns containing closely packed book stacks.

The Library of Birmingham designed by the famed Mecanoo design group is home to more than 400,000 books staggered across multiple floors, each of which features a cantilevered balcony overlooking a "book rotunda." As well as being visually pleasing, it has the notable honour of being the largest public library in the United Kingdom, the largest public cultural space in Europe, and the largest regional library in Europe.

Designed by Danish architecture firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen and Canadian firm Fowler Bauld & Mitchell, Halifax Central Library opened

. The building won the

and was a

.

The Joanina library is a baroque beauty situated in the heights of the historic centre of the Portugeuese University of Coimbra. Interestingly the library's books are protected by a small colony of bats, that during the night consume the insects that appear, eliminating the pest and assisting the maintenance of the stacks.

Nestled in the heart of Rio de Janeiro, the Royal Portuguese Reading Room is a dazzling Gothic ode to literature. Designed by Rafael da Silva e Castro, the library houses statues, art, maps and medallions alongside its incredible array of books.